Argumentative Essay : The Seventh ManBy Haruki Murakami

The narrator of “The Seventh Man” should seek forgiveness in himself. Not only is forgiving yourself an essential thing that keeps our lives going, but in his circumstances, there wasn’t much more to do to help his friend.

In the story “The Seventh Man”, While in the eye of the storm, K. and the ‘7th Man” take a walk down to the beach, K. finds himself interested in some items that washed up on the shore, and the “7th Man” was just enjoying the breeze. Moments later the “7th Man” hears this loud, rumbling noise and sprints back toward inland, he then yells at K., he didn't hear him. Just as K. heard the “7th Man”, a huge wave comes up and takes him away. Long story short the “7th Man” moves away from his hometown, and moves away to Nagano Province to escape his fears. After 40 years he builds his courage to return to his hometown to realize that his fear is no longer there. So, yes, he should forgive himself for failing to save K., the whole thing happened so fast, The “7th Man” didn’t have time to go back and save K.. There are some things in life

Fatal disasters are terrible by nature, and although the physical aftershocks are dreadful the emotional ones can be as well. The feeling of guilt that come to the survivors afterwards is known as survivor’s guilt, and it is a very painstaking mental process. Survivor's guilt is something largely disputed due to it's personal and terrible nature. Although it may seem like a horrendous thing for a person to endure it may be necessary for a person to heal and come terms with the tragedy they were involved in. Without guilt people involved in fatal tragedies would be less human, because it is human nature to go through grievances after tragedies even if they were not directly involved. Survivor’s guilt is the natural way of dealing with grief and the feeling of not having done enough to have prevented more loss or any at all. Some believe it is to cruel of a way to heal after all the person had been through, but they do not realize the development emotionally that occurs while haunted by the guilt. Survivor’s guilt was created by human nature to heal emotionally even after the physical event has occurred.

Guilt is an emotion that occurs when someone feels a high sense of morality and responsibility. In comparison, survivor guilt is a condition that occurs when a person feels they have done wrong by surviving a traumatic event when others did not. The Seventh Man feeling a sense of guilt about the loss of his close friend is a feeling that every person should feel after losing something so important to their life. It shows you are a moral person. On the other hand, the Seventh Man feeling so much guilt it overcomes his entire life is the complete opposite. It was not the Seventh Man’s fault for K.’s death. Therefore, this crippling emotion should not ruin his entire life and he should forgive himself.

“In war, standing here rather than there can save your life but cost a buddy his. It’s flukish luck, but you feel responsible.” (Sherman 153). In “The Moral Logic of Survivor Guilt,” Nancy Sherman uses this quote to explain the basis of survivor guilt in war. In “The Seventh Man” by Haruki Murakami, the narrator failed to save his closest friend from a wave. As Sherman said in her quote, people often feel guilty when they survive a situation that others didn’t. The narrator’s situation in “The Seventh Man” is a perfect example of this. Despite his failure to save K., the narrator should still forgive himself.

“Don’t waste the life I’d sacrificed my own for on feeling bad about yourself. We might as well have both lost our lives at this rate. Go see the things I never got to see. Do the things I never got to do.  Life is spent in hesitation and fear is no life at all.” is something along the lines of how I think K would have felt about the situation, given the personality described. In “The Seventh Man”, a short story by Haruki Murakami, the seventh man tells a story about a natural disaster he survived: in which his best friend did not. He summarizes this event and reminisces on how he could have saved K; that is followed by a third person point of view describing the effects this survivor’s guilt has had on the seventh man. Despite his failure to save his best friend, should he forgive himself? The answer is a clear, and obvious yes because by never forgiving himself, not only is he hurting himself and allowing K to die in vain, but he also spreads pain to those who love him like friends, family, and acquaintances. I’m sure by that present point in time; K, his parents, K’s parents, and everyone but himself had succumbed to forgiveness. The only one left to move on is the seventh man himself.

There are many situations in which people feel like they’re at fault for the death of a loved one, or a good friend. Many of these cases, to this day, involve soldiers who have seen the terrors and tragedies of war, and have watched their companions get killed in the line of fire, while they survived. In the story, “The Moral Logic of Survivor Guilt,” the author, Nancy Sherman, talks about what survivor guilt is, and why some people suffer from it. “The guilt begins an endless loop of counterfactuals- thoughts that you could have or should have done otherwise, though in fact, you did nothing wrong.” (Sherman, 153) Sherman’s statement relates back to “The Seventh Man,” and how the narrator feels guilty for not saving K. even though there was nothing that could’ve been done to help. The Seventh Man has thoughts about what he could have done, and different things he could have said to save K. but in the end, he feels guilty for nothing.

“Grief is like the ocean; it comes on waves ebbing and flowing. Sometimes the water is calm, and sometimes it is overwhelming. All we can do is learn to swim” by Vicki Harrison. It is proven that losing your loved ones is painful, shocking, some people might feel guilt, and anger. In the excerpt, “The Seventh Man” by Haruki Murakami the narrator’s best friend, K. died due to a typhoon that struck on September. After K.’s death the Seventh Man suffered in a major trauma and set back. For this reason, the narrator of “The Seventh Man” isn’t blameworthy for K.’.s death and he should forgive himself due to his actions.

Guilt is the worst experience known to humans because it ties you up in knots and makes you feel unworthy and miserable. For instance, when Sal’s mother was eight months pregnant, Sal fell from the branches of a tree. She broke her leg and fell unconscious. Sal's mother found her, carried her home, and rushed her to the hospital to be fitted in a cast. At home later that night, Sal's mother went into a difficult labor. The doctor arrived too late, the umbilical cord had strangled the baby, and Sal's mother was hemorrhaging badly. The baby was born dead her father tells Sal that she shouldn’t blame herself on the baby’s death. From the book “And then I started thinking about my mother's stillborn baby and maybe if I hadn't climbed that tree and if my mother hadn't carried me, maybe the baby would have lived and my mother never would have gone away, and everything would still be as it used to be”(Creech 257) here Sal is blaming her self for her mother abandonment.

What is guilt? “Guilt is a common response following loss and/or traumatic experiences with significant victimization,” (Nader).“Guilt can serve to keep an individual focused on a particular time period,” (Nader). What is survivor's guilt? Survivor's guilt is when the survivors feel like they did something wrong to be alive while the others did not live. “Survivor's guilt is connected primarily to the intense feeling of powerlessness experienced by the individual in the concentration camp,” (PTSD). “I was just like a newborn

In the article,” Microsoft acquires gaming startup run by 18-year-old” written by Sara Ashley O'Brien, discusses that Microsoft has acquired a young teenage entrepreneur’s gaming platform around their Xbox Live. The young entrepreneur, Matt Salsamendi, discusses his invention in a blog post by stating,” it is excited about Beam's ability to converge "playing and watching" and it will help make Xbox Live "more social and fun." In another blog he said,” "I vividly remember many of the hundreds of late nights that were spent. Hundreds of thousands of lines of code written. Millions of hours of streams during beta," wrote Salsamendi in a blog post entitled, "It's just the beginning. Although, Salsamendi sold his product to Microsoft, he clearly

The Survivors of the Holocaust,9/11 and Otto Frank may feel survivor's guilt. Many people may argue about survivor’s guilt. Survivor’s guilt is when a person survive an accident when others don’t survive and feel guilty. Some people believe survivors of life and death situations feel survivor's guilt while others feel they should not. Survivors of life and death situations should not feel survivor's guilt.

One reason survivors of life and death situations should feel survivor's guilt is because it shows we’re human. In the story “ The moral Logic of guilt” by Nancy Sherman is an anchor text about how survivors guilt works and what causes it. In this texts the author says “Just means you cared about the people that passed away, it’s normal,”(Sherman 155). This shows how survivor's guilt is just part of human nature. This proves how survivor’s guilt is a natural thing because

Many people that go through a traumatic event and feel guilty for surviving. People argue whether or not survivors of life and death situations should feel survivors guilt. Survivors guilt is when a survivor of life and death situations feel guilty when they survived and others did not. Survivors guilt should be felt by survivors of life and death situations.

Survivor’s guilt is illogical. The survivor did nothing wrong to cause the situation. “Moral Logic of Survivor’s Guilt” by Nancy Sherman is an informational article about survivor’s guilt and why some people might have it. In the text it states, “We often take responsibility in a way that goes beyond what we can responsibly held responsible for,” (Sherman 154). These survivors are blaming themselves for something that wasn’t their fault. The survivor did nothing wrong, why should they be the one who feel guilty and blame themselves.